


Every Nightmare Just Discloses

by Ryumaru



Category: RWBY
Genre: Blood, Childhood Trauma, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Nightmare Fuel, Nightmares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-18
Updated: 2015-07-18
Packaged: 2018-04-09 22:51:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4367321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ryumaru/pseuds/Ryumaru
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Weiss remembered the first time she heard Ruby crying in her sleep. A warrior running wild she might be, but Ruby Rose has a reason to not sleep well. </p><p>After all, she knows whose blood is red like roses.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Every Nightmare Just Discloses

Weiss remembered the first time she heard Ruby crying in her sleep. 

It had been not long after they had been assigned to a team together. Ruby had uncharacteristically gone to bed early, claiming that since studying was putting her to sleep, she may as well be lying down. Yang and Blake were nowhere to be seen, leaving the Schnee heiress alone with her History notes. 

The whimpers were soft at first. Weiss barely registered them, or perhaps she thought they were merely soft snores. Heaven knew that Yang snored loudly enough, and didn't such things run in families? She put the thoughts aside and tried to remember what Professor Oobleck had been talking about when she had scribbled “old fort faunus 250” on the page in front of her. Then came the sob. 

It had been just a little thing. Weiss wasn't even sure she had heard it. But she paused nonetheless. 

Another sob slipped into the silence of the dorm room. Was something... wrong? Weiss hesitantly put her notebook down. She didn't have the faintest clue how to deal with... whatever it was that was going on. If what she thought was happening was happening. 

Tentatively, Weiss stood up to check on her partner. Maybe she was just hearing things, or maybe it was someone next door. 

Ruby, who normally slept sprawled out like she had thrown herself into bed, had curled into a tight, trembling ball. Her hands clutched at the edges of her blankets so hard that they shook. A third sob, this one more ragged and strangled than the last, slipped out of her mouth. Her whole body shifted as she rolled forcefully, nearly hitting Weiss as she did so. 

The heiress hesitated. This was totally unfamiliar territory. Just a dream, right? It would be over soon. Wouldn't it? 

Silence reigned in the room like a terrible king. After a few moments of this, Weiss let herself breathe normally again. Yes, things looked like they would go ba-

Ruby pitched forward, nearly hurling herself out of her bed, choking back a scream. Weiss had to do the same, as she nearly jumped out of her skin. 

The petite girl thrashed, still apparently half-asleep. The covers had already flown away, scattering across the room like oversized rose petals, and Weiss could hear her breathing – hyperventilating – like she had been running a marathon. Her eyes were half-open, rolling, not focused on anything. 

Not knowing what else to do, Weiss called her partner's name. “Ruby! Ruby, wake up!” 

The girl rolled again, this time falling clean out of the bed and landing hard on the floor. 

Weiss decided that the time for delicacy was over. She grabbed ahold of Ruby's flailing wrists, trying to keep her from hurting herself. Terror, however, had made her far stronger than Weiss could have anticipated, and she tore free from the grasp. 

“Ruby!” 

Her back hit the wall. Whatever the dark-haired girl was seeing, it was not Weiss. 

“Ruby!” 

With each passing second, her breathing grew more rapid and ragged. Weiss began to fear that she would choke or stop breathing, somehow. 

“ _Ruby!_ ” 

The flailing stopped. In desperation, Weiss had fallen back on her usual reprimanding tone, albeit a version edged with worry that bordered on panic. Ruby froze, and Weiss reached out to touch her. 

With a tormented shriek, Ruby flinched away and blinked. Her eyes opened and re-focused. Slowly, she started breathing normally again. 

“W-Weiss...?” She had curled up as tightly as she could, apparently trying to hide behind herself. Even now, her arms still crossed over her face as though she expected her partner to lash out at her. 

“It... it's okay, Ruby. It was a nightmare. Just a nightmare.” 

Now that she was fully awake and aware of what had just happened, Ruby's eyes began welling up with tears. “Oh... no... this wasn't....” She sniffed. 

“It's okay. Just... tell me what's wrong, okay?” Weiss knelt down and reached out, gently, to her crying partner. 

It took time, between sniffles and a trip to retrieve a new box of tissues.

“I can't... I can't sleep sometimes,” Ruby explained. “It's like everything I don't want to remember from when I was little comes back. When Mom... di-... di-....” She couldn't bring herself to finish the word, not now. 

“Went missing,” Weiss finished for her. 

“That. When that happened, I... I had a lot of bad dreams. Scary ones. I couldn't sleep for weeks. Yang couldn't either. Partly because I kept her up with... all of that.” 

Ruby swallowed, trying not to burst into tears again. 

“It'd happen on and off for years. I ruined a sleepover party once because of it. But I thought... before I came here, it had been so long since... you know... I thought maybe they were gone. Guess not,” she finished, drawing her knees up to her chin and looking away. 

For lack of a better idea, Weiss gripped Ruby's trembling hands. “Tell me about them.”

Ruby looked at her partner. It was not a look of horror, or a questioning look, but a combination of both. 

“Tell me about the nightmares,” Weiss repeated. She had remembered some long-lost scrap of information from a book she'd read in her father's library. “Talking about these things helps, sometimes.” 

The younger girl swallowed, as if bracing herself. After several moments of silence, she spoke in a very small voice. 

“There's a lot of different ones. I only remember one coming up more than once....” 

As Ruby described it, Weiss saw the scene:

Ruby, still just a small child, alone in a dark room, crying out for her mother. A door opens, with light shining through from beyond it. The little girl walks through, desperate, and finds a long path through a dark forest, red petals covering the path. Shadows flicker between the trees and snarls slip through the night air – beowolves, watching, waiting. 

The path is dark, and it grows darker, until the little girl can barely see the ground she walks on. Slowly, the darkness envelops her, until she can see nothing and the howling of the beowolves is nearly deafening. 

There is a faint light, ahead, and a dark shape sitting in it. The little girl breaks into a run – it's her mother, it has to be. Her limbs feel leaden, but she keeps going, trying to reach her mother. She calls out, but the figure's back is turned. 

The little girl reaches the figure, and tugs on its cloak. Nothing happens. Once again, she tries to get its attention. The figure collapses. Wondering what could possibly be wrong, the little girl pulls at the figure's shoulder. 

Her hands come away covered in blood. 

The figure, Summer Rose, stares into the void with lifeless eyes. 

The monsters in the darkness are close now, so close that the little girl can feel their breath on the back of her neck. She stares at her hands, trying to comprehend- 

Hands seize her face. The lifeless Summer Rose clutches at her daughter. “Why? Ruby, why did you abandon me?” 

Choking in terror, the little girl can say nothing.

The phantom's grief turns to anger. Her grip becomes iron, clawing at the girl's face. “You did this to me! You let me die!”

The beowolves close in. 

“It's your fault, Ruby! _You killed me!_ ”

Weiss hugged her partner tighter, feeling her body tremble. This was always where she would wake up, screaming, clutching at her face and throat as though trying to throw off the grip of the vengeful nightmare. 

It took a long time before Ruby could speak again. Weiss just... stayed there, comforting her partner as best she could. She held Ruby, trying to breathe slowly and calmly, hoping that the pounding of her own heart as her mind tried to process everything she'd been told wouldn't make it harder for the other girl to calm down. 

“Weiss?” Ruby's voice was hard to hear, muffled as it was by her partner's sleeve. 

“Ruby?”

“... thanks.” 

Weiss stared. Ruby had buried her head under her friend's arm, unable to look her in the eye. The heiress had no idea what to say. 

“I mean it,” continued Ruby. “Yang... used to do this for me. She'd help me get back to sleep.” She smiled, faintly. “It's probably why she started reading me stories every night.”

At the mention of sleep, Weiss suddenly felt very tired. She had no idea how late it was. Finishing studying for the night was out of the question. But first...

“Are you going to be okay now?”

Ruby looked up. “I... I think so.” She straightened up. “Yeah. I can probably sleep now. They don't come back after... you know.” 

Weiss smiled. “Good. Um.” She discreetly tried to check the nearest clock. Oh, ye gods, her beauty sleep was _ruined._

Ruby tried to stand and almost overbalanced. Her legs had fallen asleep. Weiss caught her and helped her climb back into bed. 

As the younger girl rolled over and pulled the re-gathered covers up, she gave her friend a long look. Weiss had busied herself putting away her notes and turning down the lights. 

Ruby smiled. She felt a lot safer, now.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, hands up: who wants to give Ruby a hug after this? I do, and I wrote the damn thing. Poor kid.... 
> 
> Ah well. Nothing like dealing with your own sleep issues by writing about different ones, right?


End file.
